Television broadcasting systems are well known for providing program content to users. Broadcasting organizations are responsible for generating the program content. Two financial models substantially pertain to operation of the broadcasting organizations. In a first financial model, users pay the broadcasting organizations for a right to receive and consume the program content; such payment is conveniently made by way of subscription or “Pay-to-View”. In a second financial model, advertisers pay the broadcasting organizations to include advertisements in the program content which pays for the cost of preparing and transmitting the program content to users.
Conventional television broadcasting systems are operable to transmit specific program content pursuant to program time schedules. Such program schedules are inconvenient because users are obliged to consume the program content at its time of transmission. In order to address such inconvenience, users have for many years employed video recorders to record program content to enable subsequent watching of program content at a later time than that of its transmission to the users. Such video recorders enable users to employ fast-forward or fast-reverse functions of the recorders to skip over advertisements which are not of user interest. Such a manner of behavior is of concern to advertisers paying for their advertisements to be included in the program content broadcast pursuant to the aforesaid second financial model.
Recently, more sophisticated types of video recorder have been developed. In a U.S. patent application no. US 2005/0132418 (TIVO), there is described a multimedia time warping system indicated generally by 10 in FIG. 1. The system 10 allows a user thereof to store selected television broadcast programs while the user is simultaneously watching or reviewing another program. Conveniently, the system 10 is similar in size to a conventional video recorder. The system 10 accepts television input streams 20 in a multitude of forms to an input module 30 which converts the input streams 20 to an MPEG encoded formatted stream 40 for internal transfer via a media switch 50 within the system 10. Events are recorded in the system 10 that indicate the type of program component that has been found, where it is located in a data storage device 90 of the system 10, and when it was transmitted. Program logic 70, for example a computer processing unit (CPU), of the system 10 is notified that an event has occurred and that corresponding data can be selectively extracted from data buffers 80 of the system 10 for selective storage on the data storage device 90 of the system 10. The system 10 further includes a decoder 100 for converting encoded streams stored within the system 10 to a television output signal 110 for user presentation on a contemporary television display 120. The system 10 provides user control commands which enable the user to view stored programs with at least the following functions: reverse, fast forward, play, pause, index, fast/slow reverse play, and fast/slow play. Such facilities enable the user to effectively avoid having to view advertisements.
As a further advance to the system 10, it is proposed that the program logic 70 is provided with software for performing automatic editing of advertisements, for example by identifying characteristic fingerprints of program content in comparison to characteristic fingerprints of advertisements and then performing an editing function to automatically remove those portions of received signals corresponding to advertisements. Alternatively, such editing can also be potentially performed manually by the user. Such technical developments are of concern to broadcasters and advertisers on account of potentially eroding advertising revenue and advertisement effectiveness.
Recently, advertising organizations which have hitherto employed television advertising are progressively switching to other media in which to advertise, for example in newspapers, via the Internet and by telephone sales. In consequence, television broadcasting organizations operating pursuant to the aforesaid second financial model are experiencing shortfalls of revenue.
Thus, the technical problem at least partially addressed by the present invention is to adapt television broadcasting networks so that users are again obliged to view advertising material in a manner which provides benefits to organizations paying for their advertisements to be distributed to television users.